Both Thursday and Friday this week were all about chores and explores. Each day included 10+ miles of walking, but nothing yet towards our goal of finishing in France. That starts tomorrow!

Chores:  While doing these walks, we travel with only our backpacks; clothing,  toiletries, some food, etc. We also bring a suitcase, which we ship ahead to the most convenient end-of-hiking location. When we arrive to our suitcase, it’s like Christmas  … new clothes, etc. In this case, our ship-ahead location is Carcassonne, France. This is normally surprisingly easy as multiple services will pick-up and ship your bags … except in Switzerland, which is kind of, but not really, part of the European Union. That issue limited our choices, but fortunately, the Swiss Post Office came to the rescue! While more expensive than other traditional approaches (hey, Switzerland never was cheap) , the service was very efficient and the bag is on it’s way!

The second chore was to determine where the Via Gebennensis markers are!  About 30 minutes of looking, we found two.  Here’s one:

We hope to be as lucky in finding the next few thousand we need to stay on our chosen path!

Explores: Geneva is the world headquarters of just about everything; the United Nations,

Red Cross, World Health Organization,  the World Trade Organization,

embassies and much more!

There’s also the Alps (Mont Blanc in the far background)

And, Geneva’s famous Jet d’eau, climbing 500′ in the air!

And so, tomorrow we start to walk! The Via Gebennensis is not a common walk for English speakers. The only guidebook we could find is bilingual; that is, bilingual French and German! No English! What’s an adventure without adventure, eh?🤔.

A demain, nos amis!